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Shawn Klein » Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship

Rockford University’s Shawn Klein, a.k.a. the Sports Ethicist, is planning an edited volume of essays on sport. The working title is Defining Sport: Contemporary Explorations. Here is the Call for Abstracts for the book proposal.

See you next time with our digest of new and interesting items in entrepreneurship, ethics, and political economy. Here are the previous editions of CEE Review.

Kaizen Weekly Review highlights activities of The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship and recent business ethics and entrepreneurship news.
Editor: Virginia Murr

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Do Privacy Rights Matter?Americans have had a lot to digest lately. Not only was it reported that phone companies have been selling customers’ personal information to third parties, but Americans have also learned that their government has been tracking their metadata through their phones. Do Americans care? According to this summation of several surveys from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, “the importance of privacy has steadily trended upward over seven years.”.

Big Win for Monsanto’s Intellectual Property RightsWould innovation happen without intellectual property rights and the profit-motive? In a major win for intellectual property rights, the Supreme Court recently decided in Bowman v. Monsanto Co. that the farmer, Vernon Bowman, had infringed on Monsanto’s patent rights when he copied and used the seeds he yielded from a crop of Monsanto, patent-protected seeds. Read more about the case and decision.

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Is Entrepreneurship the Key to School Reform?At a recent event in New York, Dell and a student advocacy group, StudentVoice, hosted a day-long conference devoted to exploring ways schools can introduce entrepreneurship in the classroom. According to Zak Malamed, co-founder of StudentVoice, “Research shows that it’s entrepreneurial innovation that will lead to global economic recovery, and it’s important to nurture this entrepreneurial spirit from a young age.” Read more about the event and panelists.

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New Chapters from Audiobook Version of Explaining PostmodernismTwo more chapters from Stephen Hicks’s Explaining Postmodernism audiobook have been released. Chapter Four takes an in-depth look at “The Climate of Collectivism” in nineteenth- and twentieth-century political thought, and Chapter Five explores how the “The Crisis of Socialism” led to Postmodernism.

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<spanFive for Fighting: Is Hockey Fighting Justified?For many hockey fans, fights are a natural and enjoyable part of the game. But is the fighting justified? The Sports Ethicist, Shawn Klein, takes a look at the most common justifications for hockey fights. In his assessment, Klein opines that “it is a lack of sportsmanship and self-control, and overall does more harm to the sport than any purported benefits.”

Kaizen Weekly Review highlights activities of The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship and recent business ethics and entrepreneurship news.
Editor: Virginia Murr

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Ralph Lauren Displays Integrity in Bribery ScandalRalph Lauren discovered that one of its subsidiaries had been bribing Argentinian officials. Not only did the company report the violation to the SEC themselves, but it did so knowing that it would have to pay heavy fines for the subsidiary’s actions. According to the company’s attorney, Tom Hanusik, “Ralph Lauren did all the right things in this situation.” Read the article.

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Innovation in ConnectivityOur modern-era concern when a storm comes is not that we’ll lose light if the power goes out, but that we will lose the internet. Until now. Ushahidi, a non-profit technology company that builds open source software and digital tools, has created the BRCK, a convenient, portable, and durable device that can “provide failsafe internet connectivity in almost any situation.” Read more about the BRCK in this article from Forbes.

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William Thomas on the Virtue of Productiveness
William R. Thomas is currently a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University at Albany and the director of programs for The Atlas Society. In this video, Thomas discusses productive work as the central value of life, elements of the virtue of productiveness, and the entrepreneurial concept of responsibility..

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Is Classical Liberalism Compatible with Darwinian Evolution?Professor Shawn Klein has contributed a chapter to the newly released Darwinian Evolution And Classical Liberalism: Theories in Tension, edited by Stephen Dilley. Klein states that Dilley “has pulled together an interesting and thought-provoking book,” which includes critical and dissenting opinions. Read the abstract of Klein’s chapter.

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Business Ethics Case Study: Minimum WagesStephen Hicks has released another case in his Business Ethics Cases series. This video lecture examines the moral, economic, and political arguments for and against minimum wage laws.

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New Issue of Kaizen Featuring Entrepreneurship in BrazilThis issue’s feature interview with entrepreneur André Loiferman, president (CEO) of the construction company Brasília Guaíba, takes us to the south of Brazil and the challenges of infrastructure as Brazil upgrades its airports, roads, ports, and other facilities in preparation for soccer’s World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 to be held there. We also report on our recent activities at Rockford University.

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Kaizen Weekly Review highlights activities of The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship and recent business ethics and entrepreneurship news.
Editor: Virginia Murr.

9 Dangerous Things You Were Taught in SchoolWe didn’t just learn reading, writing, and arithmetic in school; we learned innumerable life lessons along the way. This Forbes article argues that school subtly teaches us such lessons as blindly following authority, never questioning the status quo, and that individual value can be standardized. As the author states: “Be aware of the insidious and unspoken lessons you learned as a child. To thrive in the world outside the classroom, you’re going to have to unlearn them.”

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Do We Have the Ability to be Heroes?Who is a hero? Achilles? John Galt? Luke Skywalker? Ironman? While certainly heroic, these are fictitious figures, not real people. So can real people be heroic? Can we be heroes? Author and Professor of Leadership, Fred Kofman, suggests that “[h]eroes are not just mythical characters. They are examples of you at your best.” Read the article.

Business EthicsA part of Hicks’s Business Ethics Case Studies video series, Introduction: Case Study Method, has been released. See the previously released video on Rent Control. Forthcoming case studies will include: The Tragedy of the Commons, Laetrile and Experimental Cancer Drugs, The FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine”, and Minimum Wages.

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Sports Symposium at Rockford UniversityToday, Professors Shawn Klein and Michael Perry are hosting a symposium on “Fandom, Fantasy, and Play.” According to professor Klein, “This year’s symposium seeks to explore and examine [the] aspects of the relationship between fan and sport.” The first panel addressing fandom will include such papers as “The Popovich-Stern Issue and Normative Implications for Professional Sports.” The second panel on fantasy will include such papers as “Fantasy Sport and Aristotelian Flourishing.” Read the abstracts.

Kaizen Weekly Review highlights activities of The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship and recent business ethics and entrepreneurship news.
Editor: Virginia Murr

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Innovative Education: the Computer in the WallThe winner of this year’s one million dollar TED prize and professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, Professor Sugata Mitra, set up a computer in a New Dehli slum, connected it to the internet, and placed it inside of a wall, protected only by a shield of plastic. After making the mouse accessible, he left. According to this Wired article, Mitra came back eight hours later and saw kids browsing the Internet in English, a language they do not speak.

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Should Olympic Athletes Be More Moral Than Other Athletes?Professor Shawn Klein, a.k.a. The Sports Ethicist, discusses morality and rule-breaking by analyzing the last Olympics. The London Olympics generated several controversies, including badminton and soccer teams trying to lose or draw to set up more favorable seeding in the next round and a swimmer who admitted to taking illegal, extra kicks in his gold medal race. According to Klein, the fact that some people are “athletically excellent does not mean they are also morally excellent.” Read the full blog post.

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The Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy This article by Professor Noel D. Campbell introduces the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, launched in 2012. According to the abstract, “JEPP was created to encourage and disseminate quality research about the vital relationships among institutions, entrepreneurship and economic outcomes.” The latest issue covers such topics as creative destruction and entrepreneurship across disciplines.

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Public Policy, Objectivism, and EntrepreneurshipStephen Hicks gave a talk on Public Policy, Objectivism, and Entrepreneurship at the 2012 Atlas Summit in Washington, DC. Some of his themes included: Our schizophrenic public policy culture — health, sex, religion, money; what wealth is; entrepreneurism as a cultural asset; Objectivism’s entrepreneurial ethic; and principled strategy in a mixed economy. Hicks will be speaking again at the 2013 Atlas Summit.

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Shawn Klein’s New Sports Ethicist Radio ProgramThe Sports Ethicist Show premiered on Rockford University Radio this week. Each week Klein and guests will discuss ethical and philosophical issues that arise in and around sport. The first episode on “What is Sport?” featured Professor Michael Perry. Listen to or download the podcast.

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Can Aerobic Activity Improve Executive Function?Among other things, executive brain function helps us to plan, organize, and formulate strategies. Is it possible to improve this all-important brain function? A study from the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review gives evidence that aerobic activity can do just that. Read more about the study.

Lance Armstrong’s much-publicized interview with Oprah, in which he reportedly confesses to using performance enhancing drugs, will air tonight (January 17, 9pm ET, OWN). CNN asked columnists, authors, and sportswriters whether we should “give Lance another chance.” CEE professor Shawn Klein was among the responses CNN published. Dr. Klein wrote:

“After years of adamant denials and protestations of his innocence, Lance Armstrong has reportedly come forward to admit his use of prohibited performance enhancing drugs. If Armstrong is sincerely contrite and forthright in his apology, most people, including myself, will forgive him for his use of prohibited drugs.

He cheated in a sport known for its widespread cheating; that doesn’t justify his use but it does put his actions into an understandable context that makes it easier to excuse the use. Further, if Armstrong cooperates with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, his lifetime ban from cycling ought to be reduced to something more reasonable.

The more troubling aspects of the Armstrong case are the allegations that he harassed and intimidated team members and potential whistle-blowers. Violating the arbitrary rules of a sport shows a character flaw and poor judgment, but it is hard to see who else is truly harmed by such actions. But to threaten, intimidate and coerce others (either to use performance enhancing drugs themselves or to cover up his team’s use) causes real harm.

Even if only some of these reports are accurate, Armstrong will have to do more than sit on Oprah’s couch to earn forgiveness.”